Family

Best animal and vegetable farms in Singapore to visit with kids

January 29, 2019

Singapore may be an urban metropolis, but you can find a surprising number of farms here that you can take your kids to. Besides stalwarts like Bollywood Veggies, new urban farms have sprouted all over Singapore – in fact, there’s even a farm in Orchard Road!

Check out our guide to the (mostly) free farms you can take your kids to.

Bollywood Veggies

Bollywood Veggies in Kranji Countryside is probably the most high-profile veggie farm in Singapore (yes, there’s more than one).

It’s free to enter and wander around Bollywood Veggies during their opening hours. You can support them by buying their produce or dining in at the reasonably-priced Poison Ivy Bistro.

For groups of 20 or more, you can book them for a guided farm tour ($12 to $15/pax) or other hands-on activities like paddy planting ($15 to $18.50/pax) and harvesting produce ($12 to $15/pax). List of paid activities here.

Not quite as famous as Kranji Countryside but still very much worth a visit, Sungei Tengah is another cluster of farms near Choa Chu Kang.

The main highlight here is Farmart Centre, an educational animal farm complete with goats, bunnies, birds, frogs, tortoises, fish and hamsters. Admission is totally free and you can feed the animals too.

For groups of 30 or more, paid guided tours are available at just $6 or $8/person.

The Animal Resort is more of a zoo than an animal farm. It’s a nice place for any animal lover to spend some time as the animals here aren’t reared for food purposes.

There are farm animals like chicken, ducks and geese, plus exotic birds, guinea pigs and rabbits to feed. But the star attraction here is a retired chestnut racehorse called “Pin Number”.

Best of all, it’s completely free to visit. For groups of 25 or more, there are paid group tours from $3 to $8 per person, and you can add on $4 for stream fishing (kids only), or $10 if you want to bring the fishies home.

Over at Murai Farmway off Lim Chu Kang Road, the most visitor-friendly farm is Quan Fa, one of the biggest organic vegetable farms and distributors in Singapore.

Quan Fa is free for the public to visit. If you want, you can support them by buying produce direct from the farm. Groups of 20 or more can also book a guided tour at $10 per person ($15 with a drink and packet of greens to take home).

Kampung Kampus by Ground Up Initiative is a community farm near Khatib MRT run by passionate volunteer farmers.

It’s free to visit, and if you want to get involved, you can actually sign up as a volunteer and help run the farm too. There’s a 45-minute Paddy Harvesting and Planting session that costs $35, where families can experience how it feels like to plant rice. A great eye-opener that you can use to teach your picky eater of a child why she shouldn’t waste food!

They also run crafting and woodworking workshops if getting covered in soil isn’t your thing.

Oh’ Farm

Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics Farm is different from the other farms on this first. It’s a hydroponics farm and it has a butterfly lodge where you can hang out with butterflies and caterpillars.

Visiting is free, but for groups of 20 or more, you can sign up for one of their many reasonably priced farm tours and activities.

Guided tours cost only $4 (farm) or $5 (butterfly lodge) per person. Those who want to try hydroponics farming at home, which is very feasible since it doesn’t require a plot of land, there are also tours that teach you how to start your own little farm at home ($7 to $10 including starter kits).

Urban farming startup Edible Garden City runs a community farm that’s conveniently located just 10 minutes’ walk from Queenstown MRT.

You can visit for free during their opening hours. Groups can opt for paid farm tours ($25 to $30/person) and/or urban farming workshops ($20 to $80/person).

If you want to try your hand at farm-to-table cooking, you can sign up for Citizen Box ($35 to $42/week). This is their subscription service where you can pick up a box of fresh produce every week – each box is supposedly good for 3 to 4 meals.

Edible Garden City’s other public veggie farm is at Dempsey’s Open Farm Community, which is free to visit too.

It’s not much of a proper farm, but it does have some plants growing and is a nice place to hang out at brunch. You can also purchase individual Citizen Box from the cafe here if you want to take away some produce.

Run by local urban farming consultancy Pocket Greens, Urban Farm and Barn is a community farm hidden atop Bukit Panjang Hill. It comes complete with an eco pond, a tiny rice plot and fruits like grapes and strawberries.

They don’t charge for entry, but you can support them by buying plants, gardening supplies or growing kits at the Urban Barn retail store.